Avocado seed with multiple sprouts

[gabesolomon]

Hi,
I often plant the seeds of avocados I eat.  I have a dozen or so on
the go, most of them have long ago sprouted and are now a couple of
feet tall, but recently I took one that was just starting to crack
open, and gave it to my friend for xmas, as he likes watching them
grow.  So today I looked at it to check its progress at his house, and
to my surprise there are 4 sprouts coming out of the seed, all very
healthy looking.
Is this normal?  I have never seen or heard of this in all my
experience!

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[timber271]

Some avocados are polyembryonic, meaning each seed has more than one
embryo. It is not that unusual in a few plant species. Some types of
citrus and mango are polyembryonic.

Only one of the sprouts should be a sexual embryo. The others will be
asexual embryos, which will produce a clone of the parent tree.
Sometimes the sexual embryo dies so only asexual embryos remain.

An internet search on polyembryonic avocado will turn up several
webpages that mention polyembryonic seed in avocado.

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